The Wing Commander Connection

Sometimes the origin of some things are lost to history.  The reason for things obscured by time, and even though customs and traditions are handed down from generation to generation the reason for them is long forgotten.  This article is intended to explain and clarify some of the underpinnings of the gaming organization of which I am a founding member, and a member for a quarter of a century.

The formation of the Dragoons, then the Caladan Highland Dragoons, now the Royal Dragoon Guards, owes the unique nature of the organization in large part not to any tabletop game, and not to any martial background on the part of the founding members, but to a video game- ORIGIN's groundbreaking 1990 space flight simulator, Wing Commander.

Wing Commander was something new to me, and to most of the members of the gaming community at Round Rock High School back then.  It was a flight sim- but it had elements of a roleplaying game.  For those who have never played Wing Commander, the game came with a magazine, Claw Marks, that served as instructions, hints, and an introduction to the universe and characters of the game.  Inside Claw Marks were articles about the enemy, ship tactics, and the rank insignia and awards of the Terran Confederation.  It is this magazine and the mechanics of the Wing Commander campaign that laid the foundations for the Dragoons as we know them today.

A player of the Wing Commander game named their pilot, even though later games in the series bestowed the name Christopher Blair.  The pilot began the game as a second lieutenant.  If a player visited their locker, they would see their uniform with insignia and ribbons displayed.  Both of these would change as the game progressed- rank would be earned as the pilot's career progressed, and ribbons would be earned for various accomplishments.  A player could get an idea of how they were doing overall by these two metrics.

Some of these elements were also present in SSI's Renegade Legion: Interceptor game as well.

When the Dragoons first formed in a proto-version as a regular Battletech campaign with a handful of players in 1994, it resembled most gaming parties.  There was no actual organization to speak of, just players sitting down to play the MechWarrior RPG and the Battletech board game.  This even predates the use of the unit name "Dragoon" - the unit being played at that time was the 22nd Albion Hussars, a House Davion unit.  In an example of two hobbies cross-pollinating, things began to change when members of this game campaign began an attempt to become a chapter of STARFLEET, The International Star Trek Fan Association Inc. as the Shuttlecraft Retribution.  This effort ultimately petered out due to interpersonal issues- the Retribution never commissioned as a STARFLEET chapter.  But some of the structural elements of STARFLEET combined with the martial theme of the Battletech universe and the player award and rank system of Wing Commander when the Dragoons started to grow beyond what an unstructured game campaign could handle.

With first 10, then 15, and eventually 28 players, not counting GMs and OPFOR (Opposing Forces) players, the Dragoons grew so large some structure was needed to ensure smooth operations of the campaign.  The GM/OPFOR players discussed the issue as the group grew, and decided to take the Wing Commander approach to each player, pairing the approach to the organizational structure already in place in the Battletech game fiction.  The structure of the 'Mech Lance, four 'Mechs under a Lieutenant, combined into 'Mech Companies, three Lances commanded by a Captain, were perfect for streamlining a system by which the players themselves would help organize the gaming by being formed as Lances and Companies of an overall Dragoon Battalion.  Each member would create a single character, a Persona, whose career would be quantified by rank and awards for their in-game accomplishments, a-la Wing Commander.  The Wing Commander awards for Ace, Ace of Aces, and ejecting and surviving were ported over as-is.  Other awards were created as recognition for the accomplishments of the players and their characters. Leadership and assistance with running the organization were recognized with ribbons, as were in-persona awards for valor on the battlefield.

The Dragoons had taken on many of the elements that are cornerstones of the modern organization partially out of necessity- wrangling dozens of players and keeping them organized would be untenable for any group of GMs.  Having one out of every four players responsible for the other three helped with that task, and also established friendly rivalry between the lances and companies.  Awards and promotions became badges of recognition for accomploshments- both as a player and as a persona, and a mark of the responsibility in the organization.  With ribbons and ranks came the first Dragoon cosplay - old Vietnam-era US Army  khaki shirts with rank on the collar and ribbons over the pocket.  With so many players, the Dragoons began using actual formations for game briefings- how else can over two dozen teenaged and early 20s gamers be kept quiet and attentive long enough to give them their assignments for a massive Battletch game that regularly lasted all weekend?

Once those elements of the organization were established, many of the others followed.  Award ceremonies, saluting, Dragoon meals designed for serving mass quantities of food to many gamers as cheaply as possible... all hallmarks of the Dragoons over the years.

And it all began with applying Wing Commander's persona system to a group of ragtag Battletech players in order to rein in and organize a gaggle of young tabletop players.